FKT: Jeff Merrick - Bay to Ridge to Skyline to Sea (CA) - 2020-07-10

Athletes
Route variation
Standard route
Multi-sport
No
Gender category
Male
Style
Self-supported
Start date
Finish date
Total time
12h 26m 56s
GPS track(s)
Report

I ran this route as described in my comment on the page for the route:

Due to COVID-19 precautions all of the public water locations are currently shut off so I have stashed water near a couple fill up points that would typically be available. I believe that this will make my run officially self supported but it will be unsupported in spirit. Also, a small section of the Skyline to the Sea trail is closed and will require a detour. From the Big Basin Redwoods State Park site:

CLOSED - Approximately 1 mile of the Skyline to Sea Trail is closed south of Park Headquarters from Middle Ridge Road to the Sunset Connector Trail due to storm damage. Detours are in place.

This will add a little bit of distance and a little bit of vert.

Other than stashing water I carried everything else (food, gear) with me. I ran this entirely on my own and did not receive any help except for a ride back to the start after the run was done.

The day started off well and I was making better than expected time when I hit Saratoga Gap at the halfway point. However, I started to slow down a lot on the climb after Waterman Gap Camp and this continued even after the climb was over.  The last 10 miles were on pretty runnable terrain but the heat and the effort of the day caught up to me and there was a lot of resting and power hiking to the finish.  It was pretty amazing when the ocean finally came into view around a mile from the finish.